Fun fact: I actually applied to Yale thinking I wanted to pursue a career in direct client services, as a public defender, or as an education policy researcher. Given the opportunity to explore my legal interests, however, I discovered that I actually preferred the feeling of negotiation to oral argument and brief writing, and that corporate law fascinated me! Since deciding on a career in corporate law, I have pursued a highly personalized program of legal study here at YLS. Second semester 1L year, for example, YLS let me spread my wings and pick my own courses. This approach to law school, which I lovingly refer to as "a la carte law school,” has made for a one-of-a-kind law school experience, tailor-made to suit my unique academic interests and career pursuits.

Almost no one applies to law school expecting to become a tax lawyer. For most people, the topic of taxes often elicits some form of disgust; after all, regardless of one’s feeling about whether taxes should be higher or lower, almost no one likes seeing a big chunk of her paycheck disappear each month. As I was deciding on classes as a 2L, however, I decided to go ahead and take tax law, as it is considered an important class and I had been advised that Professor Alstott, who was teaching it that semester, was very good.

I remember reading Speak Up about Gender: Ten Years Later, a Yale Law Women (YLW) report on gender dynamics at Yale Law School, just after applying to YLS. I had heard about the gender issues students faced at many prestigious law schools, such as lack of female faculty and disproportionate classroom participation. These were certainly concerns of mine while choosing where to apply. I was so excited to see that Yale had a strong group of women who were focused on these issues and working toward positive change.

I was uncharacteristically excited to get back to campus this fall.* Heading into my 3L year, I was excited to be so close to graduation; to see friends who dispersed all over the world for their summer employment; and especially to get to know the incoming Class of 2018, which I’ll do primarily as a Coker Fellow. (Others have eloquently described the role elsewhere, but briefly: Coker Fellows are third year students who assist small group professors in teaching legal writing and host social events for first year students.) My primary motivation for taking the job was a desire to help the incoming students have a really satisfying, enjoyable, and (as much as possible) stress-free transition into YLS. I had a fabulous set of Cokers when I arrived here, and their generosity, wisdom, and patience with all my stupid questions were invaluable. Paying it forward seemed like the right thing to do.

Once I decided to transfer to Yale, contemplating starting 2L and, simultaneously, starting over again at a new law school was very exciting—so many fascinating courses, legal theory everywhere, only kind of real grades—yet also somewhat unnerving. Would I really become part of the YLS community? What if all my classmates had learned all of law during 1L and I was hopelessly behind? Also, don’t all these people already know each other? (The issue-spotting aspect of legal training can apparently be disadvantageous at times.) On arriving in New Haven during Fall Interview Program week, many of us as transfer students wondered if we would really integrate into YLS.

I won’t lie. It can be frustrating to study at YLS (Yale Law School) when you don’t identify as a progressive. But the Yale chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) makes up for that...

I read Top Law Schools, and I am very familiar with the belief that law schools encourage unqualified students to apply in order to increase their applicants and rise in the rankings. I also know the perception that Yale is impossible to get into, and that almost kept me from applying. No one wants to pad a school’s applications byline for rankings only to receive a thin envelope, with a three-line rejection letter – Dear Applicant, we regret to inform you… – a few months later. However, I can tell you from personal experience to disregard those valid concerns. I invite you to still apply to YLS because (1) it represents an incredible opportunity (which comes with its own set of responsibilities) and (2) Yale Law School needs more students like you...

All top-tier law schools claim to have one of the strongest programs in international law. They all boast their endless list of faculty, clinics, research groups, fellowships, internships, clubs, and activities in international law. But this isn’t helpful for comparative purposes.

The one message that I have is this: the strength of a law school’s program in international law depends significantly on the general qualities of the law school. In order to make this point, I wish to explain how I pursued my interest in international law during my first year at YLS, and how six unique qualities of YLS made my experience studying international law at YLS incredible.

"I worked at a law firm last year, so I already know how to Bluebook." I will never forget these words that someone--now a very good friend, but then a stranger--said to me as we walked into the law school auditorium on the first day of Orientation, 8 a.m. "Whatbook what?" I thought. At that point, I could not have named a single law firm in the entire world if you had put a (hypothetical) gun to my head. I had heard of no book of any color except Redbook (a so-called "women's" magazine, for those not in the know) and I had certainly never stepped foot in a law firm (that remains true today).

Prom may seem like a distant high school memory, but most law schools have an annual prom-like formal dance. Yale’s is actually planned as a fundraiser by the Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale, a student-run non-profit organization which funds public-interest fellowships for law students applying from all over the country. More...

A law student’s typical day includes class, coffee, and reading. And, if you’re like the majority of YLS students, your day also involves a trip to the library. And while some might equate “law library” with a musty, dark space filled with dense casebooks, time spent at the Lillian B. Goldman Law Library is a treat for Yale students. More...

When you spend the days arguing and counter-arguing intellectual minutiae of legal theory, losing touch with reality becomes far too easy. Lest we all become out-of-touch lawyers, here are a few tips to keep your mind grounded.

I remember that finding housing was one of the most stressful parts of getting ready to come to law school, so the purpose of this post is to help provide as much information as I know as clearly as possible. I’ve only been here for one semester, so there is a lot I don’t know. This is not meant to be totally comprehensive. But it will provide a good place to start.

I remember that finding housing was one of the most stressful parts of getting ready to come to law school, so the purpose of this post is to help provide as much information as I know as clearly as possible. I’ve only been here for one semester, so there is a lot I don’t know. This is not meant to be totally comprehensive. But it will provide a good place to start.

During the first semester, the most important difference between Yale and other schools is grading: other schools have grades, Yale doesn’t. In later semesters, Yale students can receive a Pass, a Low Pass, or an Honors. But for the first semester 1L classes are only graded Pass/Fail…and nobody ever fails. This system relieves a lot of stress the first term, especially around exams.

Law school was not my first choice for graduate education. Like many a Yale applicant, I’d originally planned to earn a PhD and become a professor, until I was dissuaded by my discipline’s spectacularly grim employment statistics. I’d done some legal internships during college, and worked at a law firm for the year after I graduated, but up to the very first day of orientation I was worried I’d made a mistake and would hate studying law.

One thing I did not fully appreciate before starting at YLS is that, in many ways, New Haven is the ideal place to be a student. Although the Law School itself is a small community, it is part of the larger community of Yale University.

Any law student at Yale has the option to either enroll in (and receive law degree credit) or audit classes from Yale’s other schools after the first semester. Some students, though, seek something more—a formal program that allows them to learn to the fullest extent in whatever area outside law might pique their interest.

When I was accepted to Yale, I was thrilled. However, it would be unfair to omit that I also felt a little disappointed about moving to New Haven. Though I never seriously considered attending another school after being accepted, I moved here feeling apprehensive about going to a small city with a less-than-sterling reputation. Now that I live here, I can’t imagine being in school anywhere else.

The Dean of the Law School, Robert Post, emails the student body with a list of named lectures and events for the school year, offering students even more events to note on their calendars. A few weeks ago, he sent an updated version of this list with a very exciting and unusual addition: Stephen Colbert, of the popular and award-winning comedy show The Colbert Report.

At YLS, we’re fortunate to count among our alumni three sitting Supreme Court Justices, three (and soon to be four) United States Senators, and two former Presidents. We were lucky enough to have one of those former presidents – Bill Clinton – here with us for the 2013 Alumni Weekend and his 40th reunion just a few short weeks ago.

I imagine that, if you’re thinking about applying to YLS, you’re already well aware that the faculty here is, to put it mildly, impressive. I’m sure you’ve scoured the website for information about their scholarship, their newsworthiness, and their close relationships with students. You’ve probably even found a few that you’d kill to work with on the faculty’s deep bench. The only thing I would want to add to all that is an explanation of how it all plays out in the classroom.

I’m just five weeks into my first term at YLS, but so far I’m blown away by how successful the school has been at fostering a friendly, relaxed and supportive environment for the 1L class. I’m usually a bit skeptical when institutions talk about “developing a culture,” but Yale has the walk to back up its talk.

You’re not coming to Yale for the food. You’re coming here (ostensibly) for the legal education, the epic all-night parties, and the opportunity to go several hundred thousand dollars into debt. But everyone’s got to eat, I suppose. And after three years of stumbling around, here are a few thoughts.

Every fall, YLS hosts a Global Constitutionalism Week, during which judges serving on the highest courts from all over the world come to the law school to engage in conversations both with each other and also with law school faculty and students.

Having just completed my last law school exam, and with mere days before graduation, I’m already getting pretty nostalgic about YLS. So I thought I’d use this, my final blog post for our stellar Admissions Office, to provide a short reflection on my time at YLS. The theme is Things I Wish I Had Known About YLS Before I Got Here – something that I hope will be particularly useful to prospective students.

Most seasoned vegetarians (and vegans) are old hands at foraging for themselves in less than ideal dining situations. However, if you are an herbivore, you’ll be happy to know Yale Law School, and New Haven in general, have plenty of vegetarian options.

I would like to expand upon a couple of Student Perspectives blog posts regarding practical training at YLS. In addition to the plethora of clinics offered at the Law School, students can participate in simulated trial and courtroom situations in courses such as Trial Practice and in activities such as Mock Trial and Moot Court. In this entry, I am going to reflect on another hands-on student activity: the Pro Bono Network (PBN).

At Yale, we have a very strong graduate school community, with studies ranging from Comparative Literature to Economics to Public Health. As law students, we are part of this graduate school network, which offers many opportunities to meet other graduate students, explore a new interest, or delve deeper into a passion you may have explored before law school.

When I was choosing between law schools, I looked primarily at their clinical offerings, and particularly their indigent defense clinics. While our clinic is just getting off the ground, Yale has something else going for it: it offers students the opportunity to get involved in clinics in the second semester of their first year.

Law students spend much time, both inside and outside the classroom, analyzing arguments and creating their own. While most of this effort is focused on written and oral argumentation, YLS also provides students with an outlet to engage in visual advocacy, by making arguments through film with the Visual Law Project.

What do happy hours, meditation, study breaks, and March Madness all have in common? Students at YLS get to enjoy all of these activities, courtesy of our extremely active and friendly staff in the Office of Student Affairs.

Here at YLS, we are blessed to have an incredible resource in the Lillian Goldman Law Library. Always the heart of the school, the law library was the institution around which the law school was built in the nineteenth century, and it continues to be central to students today.

I won’t mince words here: the clerkship process is unpleasant. It’s maddeningly opaque, it has many of the features of an insider’s game, it’s incredibly competitive, and in the last two years the hiring plan—the last bit of order to the process—has fallen apart. At the same time, clerkships remain plum jobs after graduation.

A soaring rendition of Brahms’s “Sonatensatz” on violin and piano. Inspiring and heartfelt performances of Fauré and Schumann. A flawless vocalization of “Can’t I Just Be” from Dimond & Kooman’s Homemade Fusion. And finally, an impromptu holiday song medley sing-along around a piano that included Mariah Carey’s famous “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

A recurring theme at YLS is community. Coming from a large state school, I was excited to become part of a more close-knit student body. But there was one aspect of the YLS community that I did not see coming: the Wall.

My professional objective is to own and run a business as a manager and entrepreneur. I think YLS is not only a worthwhile investment—it’s also an under-rated (and surprisingly good) place to learn about business.

For those of us who prefer suburbia or the country, living in a city for three years can be a little daunting. However, while New Haven will never be the countryside, there are still plenty of opportunities to enjoy nature during one’s time at YLS.

It’s possible to get a real legal education at YLS by taking doctrinal classes. Every semester there are at least a dozen black letter classes, which is enough to fill your schedule several times over.

Six months ago as I was finishing an editorial about gender violence for a legal blog, a fellow classmate asked me if I planned on writing an editorial about the upcoming Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization in 2011.

Having recently moved to a new area of town, I’ve had my share of apartment searching in New Haven. So in this post I’m going to share with you my knowledge about the various options available to law students at Yale.

I came to law school “straight through” from my undergrad in Houston and so had to make some adjustments upon moving here. There were three things that changed the most for me: housing, food, and culture.

You might think that attending law school will require you to sacrifice your physical fitness in order to maximize the amount of time you spend cramming for your Contracts exam in some deep dark corner of a library.

Like everyone else who reads this blog, before coming to YLS, I heard a lot about the professors here: YLS has one of the lowest student-faculty ratios in the country, students are taught by legal luminaries from Day One, the small group system is a great way to get to know a professor, and the list goes on.

The first few weeks of 1L year are extremely harried. There are a slew of welcome events, happy hours, chances to hang out with your small group, attempts to learn how to read cases, and extracurricular activities, not to mention trying to remember everyone’s names!

In addition to being a 1L, I’m also pursuing my Ph.D. in economics (focused on development and education) at another university. Joint degrees are pretty common here, but they come in all different forms.

I didn’t worry about grades in college. I was in trade school (as I am now) and was sure that the jobs I would hold would be staffed by people unlikely to care that I had attended college, much less want to know my GPA or see a transcript. I was almost exclusively motivated by academic interest when choosing classes.

Unlike many of my peers at YLS, I knew relatively early on that I wanted to focus on corporate law and practice at a large law firm immediately following graduation. Given my interests in corporate law and law & economics, I was honestly a little reluctant about matriculating at Yale

When I first got the call from the Yale admissions office, I remember being in disbelief, followed by glee, bewilderment, and anxiety. How did this happen? I was not the picture of a Yale Law student I had imagined.

If you are considering applying to a law school or are making a choice about which one to attend, you may be looking at “student-faculty” ratios as one yardstick among many by which to compare schools.

A few weeks ago, an email was circulated among the 1L class about a new joint-degree program that would begin its inaugural year this fall. The program is a joint JD/MBA program between Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management (SOM) that would allow students to earn a JD and a MBA in a total of three years.

A couple weeks ago I enjoyed the best flan I’ve ever tasted. This delicious dessert had been preceded by freshly fried plantains and a buffet of rice, beans, pork, and beef. Surprisingly, my fabulous meal was not served at New Haven’s Soul de Cuba Café

As I prepared to move to New Haven only six months ago, one of the first things to do was to find a place to live. Having spent the previous two years embattled in the bloodsport that is the New York City rental market, I braced myself for a long, tortuous hunt for suitable digs. Fortunately, I shouldn’t have been so worried; finding an apartment in New Haven is actually a very easy and pleasant experience.

I think it is a safe assumption to say that each one of us has had days where we leave the law school in a state of elated disbelief questioning the reality of what had just happened in that one square block that consumes our lives.

It was the first weekend back in New Haven after exams. We only had a few days to recover from our 1L pass-pass exam period before returning for second semester and were still trying to figure out how to shop for classes. I had already attended seven different lectures in the first week and still had no idea what I was going to take.

The first semester at Yale Law School is pretty standard as far as law school curriculum goes. Every 1L takes the same four classes: Constitutional Law, Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Torts. You pick up your schedule at orientation without any decisions to make or courses to decide between.

Yale Law School has erased my need for Blockbuster and Netflix. Indeed, one could make the argument that the robust social scene at Yale makes movies second class – that is not the point of this post. Instead, Yale Law School’s tremendous movie collection has made Blockbuster a thing of the past (well, at least a trivial thing until graduation).

I felt I could best contribute to the blog by offering a day in the life of a Yale Law student. I woke up this morning later than usual, a little after 10:30, thanks mostly to the open bar party hosted by the student reps of the law school.

The traditional legal curriculum begins with two semesters of legal writing. That is too little brief-writing to become Solicitor General of the United States, and it is way more than one might need to run for President of the United States. Since 85% of Yale’s graduates go on to be Solicitor General or President of the Unites States, it should come as no surprise that our writing program is structured a little differently.

As the end of my first term at YLS nears, an increasing number of my 1L colleagues can be seen roaming the halls dressed up in full business attire. Since YLS is a pretty casual place, this sight is quite unusual –

I wanted to start this entry with some sort of warning: despite all the wonderful things you’ve heard about Yale Law School, this whole experience isn’t all plain sailing. I wanted to find some burden you ought to bear in mind because, when I was trying to make the decisions you’re facing, the Yale write-ups all seemed a little too good to be true.

I graduated from college on May 10, got married on May 31, and then moved across country a few months later to begin Yale Law School. I was somewhat apprehensive about coming to Yale as a married woman.

I am panicking. My final semester at Yale Law is about to begin. After finishing up my remaining credits and writing that final paper next semester, I am to be released into a foreign realm known as “The Real World.”

Even though I am a 1L, orientation feels like it was forever ago. The majority of it is just a blur, where I spent most of the time desperately trying to remember the names of the 180 new faces I met within a matter of 24 or 48 hours. There is, however, one part of orientation that I remember vividly – getting my course schedule.

Last weekend was YLS Prom (officially known as the Yale Law School Public Interest Formal—the event raises money for a YLS organization that provides grants for public interest law projects after graduation.).

Secretary of Homeland Defense Security Michael Chertoff came to speak at the law school on Monday, April 7, 2008. We protested him with vigor, holding signs and chanting after he was finishing speaking, but he didn't seem to mind.

After years of trying to guess whether “A” or “C” would get me to the next problem on the Scantron form, I was excited at the prospect of law school: a world without multiple choice tests and worrying about No. 2 pencils. What I didn’t expect, however, was the variety of options available for receiving a grade in my courses at law school.

People will tell you YLSers aren’t competitive. People will tell you that walking through the doors of 127 Wall Street will instantly divest you of any desire to step over your classmates and friends on your way to becoming #1 at Yale.

Many of my friends elsewhere have compared their law school experiences to living on a desert island surrounded by nothing but books, spending the bulk of their days secluded in the library, and gaining a precious few moments of human contact when they venture out for food.

Two years ago, when I applied to law school, the admissions process went better than I ever dreamed it would. I was accepted by both Yale and Harvard and suddenly found myself in the not-so-pitiable position of having to choose between two of the most amazing law schools in the country.

Something that should be highlighted is that there is much more to law school than studying the law. Hence, some of you are probably wondering what life outside the hallowed halls of Yale Law School is like.

There is some cliché about riding bikes, to which the exact phrasing escapes me, but sounds something like: “You’ll never forget how to ride a bike.” The saying (however it goes) is absolutely, unequivocally correct and it took a year in New Haven for me to come to terms with it.

I am loving my first year of law school. True, it is supposed to be one of the most difficult; but at YLS the first year experience is something I find myself enjoying more and more as I begin the second semester. One of the great things about first year at YLS is the ability to choose courses for second term.

I have heard the critiques - New Haven will never be Yale’s selling point, or even a factor prospective students list on the “Pro” side of the pro/con list they are making to help them decide which law school to attend.

Yale is the utopia of law schools: a gorgeous gothic building surrounding a lush green courtyard, world-renowned professors, and an extremely relaxed grading policy -- what more could you want? But in my first couple weeks here, I learned that while all that certainly contributes to making Yale a wonderful experience, what truly distinguishes the law school is the faculty.

This past Monday, our small group professor cancelled our 10 a.m. Contracts class and instead scheduled a trip to New York City. We were to see Judge Calabresi, also a Yale professor, sit on the bench of the Second Circuit Court of appeals in the morning and to eat dinner at the New York home of Henry Hansmann, our small group professor who was organizing the trip.

I tried to explain to them that the last (and only) time I had gone bowling I was roundly beaten … by a group of children … under the age of 12. But they weren’t having any of it. My small group was competing against three other groups in a bowl-off (the technical term, I’m sure), and I was playing.

I’m finishing up my first semester of law school this week, and I’m pretty shocked how quickly it has passed. Despite Yale’s reputation of being “theoretical,” I feel like in one semester I’ve learned a lot of skills that will help me in my law career.

Among other things, one aspect of Yale Law that I have found to be different from almost any other law school in America is the lack of a separate 1L legal writing class. Instead of a scheduled class, all of our writing assignments are integrated into other courses throughout the first semester.

In the midst of get-to-know-you barbeques and hikes as a 1L class, every so often, a 2L would appear on the scene. My first thought was always, “Who is this incredibly impressive person in front of me and how have they gotten to where they are today?”

I was nervous about my first legal writing assignment. At YLS, we don’t have a separate legal writing course for 1L students. Instead, we learn research and writing within one of the four first semester classes – in my case, Constitutional Law.

After reading this blog, you probably know all the reasons why YLS is such a great place to be. It’s small, full of really sharp people and truly brilliant professors, not competitive, has a strong public interest focus, no grades, yada, yada. At this point in the admissions process, I think I had the brochure memorized. What I didn’t know, but did suspect, is how far the Yale name can carry you when it comes time to find a job.

Before I arrived in New Haven, I worried about Yale’s size. I thought a legal metropolis was necessary to create rich communities of varied interests. Over the last two months, I’ve found that Yale has more dynamic niches than I imagined. One of my favorites thus far has been my journal, the Journal of Law & Humanities.

This past week was “flyback week,” a funny euphemism for Fall Break. The idea is that 2Ls who are interviewing with law firms can have the week off to fly around the country and interview for summer jobs (which, presumably, lead to permanent positions), while the 1Ls and 3Ls can catch up on our reading.

I came to YLS expecting the school to provide all the intellectual challenges and opportunities I could ever want. I was definitely not disappointed in the least, but surprised when I found out that I would be getting more than just food for thought.

During most of late August in 2006, my head hurt from the different emotions on my mind. I became afraid, excited, intrigued and nervous all at once. To make things worse, I was in a new city, called New Haven – which according to the masses is not a wonderful place to reside. In short, I was a new student at Yale Law School.

I am often asked some form of the following: “I know Yale doesn’t have grades. But do you really not have grades? And doesn’t that just mean that you are more competitive in other aspects?” The answers to those questions are yes, we do have grades, and yes, there is competition.

Fun fact: I actually applied to Yale thinking I wanted to pursue a career in direct client services, as a public defender, or as an education policy researcher. Given the opportunity to explore my legal interests, however, I discovered that I actually preferred the feeling of negotiation to oral argument and brief writing, and that corporate law fascinated me! Since deciding on a career in corporate law, I have pursued a highly personalized program of legal study here at YLS. Second semester 1L year, for example, YLS let me spread my wings and pick my own courses. This approach to law school, which I lovingly refer to as "a la carte law school,” has made for a one-of-a-kind law school experience, tailor-made to suit my unique academic interests and career pursuits.

Almost no one applies to law school expecting to become a tax lawyer. For most people, the topic of taxes often elicits some form of disgust; after all, regardless of one’s feeling about whether taxes should be higher or lower, almost no one likes seeing a big chunk of her paycheck disappear each month. As I was deciding on classes as a 2L, however, I decided to go ahead and take tax law, as it is considered an important class and I had been advised that Professor Alstott, who was teaching it that semester, was very good.